The present invention relates to a method and to a device for interconnecting connecting terminals, particularly insulation-displacement connecting terminals.
In the field of electrical connection apparatus, it is known practice for electrical components, for example junction blocks, aligned one beside the other, to be placed next to each other. It is thus common for a series of identical junction blocks to be aligned along one and the same rail.
It is also known practice for electrical members, such as junction blocks, aligned one beside the other, to be interconnected. These electrical members generally comprise a host structure which possibly consists of a female component designed specifically to take a type of clip. This structure may simply amount to an opening made in a connecting element, for example of the conducting strip type, to allow insertion and establish electrical contact between this connecting element and a clip.
To make a connection between several electrical components, for example adjacent junction blocks, it is known practice to employ interconnection strips. Strips of this type are made with the number of clips required by the user. Documents DE-44 11 306 or FR 2 764 445 disclose such interconnection strips. The use of these strips assumes that the electrical components to be interconnected have a structure intended to take a clip.
However, junction blocks exist which are designed without a structure to allow interconnection with adjacent junction blocks. Such junction blocks are, for example, blocks designed with miniaturization in mind. The area of interest here is, more specifically, junction blocks which have an insulation-displacement connecting terminal comprising an insulation-displacement and retaining slit.
The object of the present invention is to provide a new method and a new device for the interconnection of such connecting terminals. This device may advantageously be used with junction blocks which are equipped with connecting terminals such as those described and claimed in document EP-0 247 360. A connecting terminal of this kind comprises a conductive connecting piece with a straight insulation-displacement and retaining slit for the cores of the wires, which is immobilized in a housing of an insulating casing itself provided with an opening which extends opposite the insulation-displacement and retaining slit to allow the wires to be inserted transversely over the insulation-displacement mouth that this slit comprises and to allow the insulating sheaths of the wires, the core of which is retained in said slit, to be immobilized. Still according to this document, the slit is formed longitudinally along a profiled part of the conductive piece which, in this region, has a hollow polygonal cross section allowing the translational guidance along the slit of an end part of an external tool designed to slide on each side and between the folds delimiting the edges of the slit, so as to push the wires into this slit in a transverse position with respect to it, being guided in the internal cavity of the profiled part, said tool end being guided in translation from outside the insulating casing toward said cavity by the edges of a hole formed in said insulating casing for this purpose.
The method according to the invention is a method for interconnecting connecting terminals exhibiting an insulation-displacement and retaining slit, using an interconnection comb comprising a connecting strip from which contact pins extend. According to the invention, the free end of the contact pins forms a clip, and the interconnection of two connecting terminals is achieved by making the ends of two contact pins grip the edges of the corresponding insulation-displacement and retaining slits.
Thus, interconnection is achieved without it being necessary to provide a special structure in the region of the connecting terminal.
As a preference, the gripping is achieved at the end of that region of the insulation-displacement and retaining slit which is intended to retain a wire that is to be connected, this end being on the side from which the wire that is to be connected is introduced into the slit. Specifically, this is a region in which good contact is possible and easily accessible because the wire that is to be connected is intended to have access to this region.
The invention also provides a device for interconnecting connecting terminals comprising a connecting strip from which contact pins extend.
According to the invention, the connecting strip extends in a plane perpendicular to the direction in which the pins extend; a connecting pin extends from each of the two opposed longitudinal edges of the connecting strip in the region of each connecting terminal, and two connecting pins facing each other form a clip.
A device of this kind is easy to produce. Specifically, all that is required is for a metal strip to be cut and bent to form such a device. These are simple and commonplace operations. The cost of such a component is fairly low.
The edges of the slit for retaining the conducting part can sit in the clip. The pins therefore work by parting from one another, whereas, in conventional interconnection devices, two pins facing each other work by moving closer together.
In one embodiment, a tooth extends between each two pins in the plane of the connecting strip on each longitudinal edge of the strip. The interconnection device according to the present invention can therefore additionally have an insulating protection formed of an extruded section made of insulating synthetic material which slips over the teeth of the two opposed longitudinal edges of the connecting strip.
An interconnection device is intended, for example, to interconnect connecting terminals with insulation-displacement and retaining slits, these terminals each being placed in an insulating casing having an opening to allow the passage of and to guide the translation of an external tool designed to push a wire between folds delimiting the edges of the insulation-displacement and retaining slit. A connecting terminal of this kind is described, for example, in patent EP-0 247 360. In this case, the pins on the connecting strip side are advantageously spaced apart and have a width such that they are guided through the opening intended for the passage and guidance of the external tool and, in the connected position, the free ends of the pins preferably lie one on each side of the folds delimiting the edges of the insulation-displacement and retaining slit.
In this configuration, there is no need to envisage any adaptation at the connecting terminal to allow connection to an adjacent connecting terminal because connection is achieved via an orifice originally intended for the passage of an external tool to allow a connectable wire to be connected into the connecting terminal.
When the connection device according to the invention is intended to interconnect connecting terminals with insulation-displacement and retaining slits, these terminals each being placed in an insulating casing having an opening to allow the passage of and to guide the translation of an external tool designed to push a wire between folds delimiting the edges of the insulation-displacement and retaining slit, the insulating casing having a rim intended to take a projection on which the external tool can catch, then each pin advantageously has a boss intended to sit in the catching rim when the clip is in the connected position. This allows the connection device to be held in the connected position. A connecting terminal of this kind is described, for example, in patent EP-0 265 321.
To allow the length of the interconnection device according to the invention to be adapted to suit the user""s requirements, the connecting strip advantageously has cutouts made in advance.